Cross posting to both the “dataisx” subreddits because I love this but my workout buddies hate it. What do y’all think? Beautiful for its ingenuity or ugly because it’s not intuitive?
Context: I wanted a compact visual progress tracker to hang in the basement gym. After a couple of prototypes this is the completed version 1.0. It’s specifically designed for barbell weight training.
The key feature is the iterative incremental y-axes. The y axis runs from 45 lbs to 490 lbs and is split into 5 overlapping 90 lb increments. This means that when data extends above the top of the graph it increments to the next axis and enters at the bottom of the graph (ex. Squat in week 30 or Bench in week 31).
The unique arrangement of the y-axis allows it to be used as a plate guide. Here’s an explanation for those unfamiliar with “plate math”.
—- start Plate Math—-
Barbells are pretty simple. It’s a bar that you put heavy plates on and then pick it up. Figuring out what plates to put on, however, requires some not-so-simple arithmetic. If you want to lift, for example, 290 lbs you first subtract the weight of the bar (45lbs), then divide the result by 2 to determine how much weight to put on each side.
(290-45)/2=122.5
But there’s not a 122.5 lb plate so now you have to determine what combination of available plates add up to 122.5 and put that on each side of the bar. Common plate sizes are 45, 35, 25, 15, 10, 5, and 2.5. To get to your target of 122.5 lbs with the fewest number of plates you need two 45s, one 25, one 5, and one 2.5. It’s not so easy to figure in your head when you’re tired and you’ve got 3 people in rotation, all lifting different weights.
—- end Plate Math—-
Splitting the y-axis into 90 lb increments means that each mark uses the same combination of “minor plates” (less than 45lb) while each successive axis uses one more “major plate” per side.
All of this allows different lifts to be tracked on the same compact scale even though their weights are significantly different (Overhead Press around 100lbs while Squat is around 300lbs.)
Thanks if you read all that. So what do you think? Beautiful or Ugly?
Also, if there’s a real name for this type of y-axis, what is it?
by saxifrange
4 Comments
Bit of both, leaning towards ugly.
I say it’s only kinda beautiful because it’s hand made & not some POS excel chart. You can actually read this, just is what it is. You could make it more pretty and it’d fit the sub better for sure. Simple, effective, data.
Lines go up and to the right, seems like you’re beautiful, mate 😉
The ugly part is that it is overloaded with too many lifts with similar colors, so eventually overhead press, power clean, and deadlift bleed together. It is also difficult to see where you are on the progression of the scale on the left because the colored dots are similar.
Because of this, it is not that great as a “progress tracker”, even though it is the intent. I would almost just limit to 1-3 lifts per sheet as a progress tracker.
That said, it does one difficult thing fairly beautifully. It quickly informs the user what plates to put on the bar for the lift they have planned. (It also makes it very easy to confirm that the weight on the bar matches the planned lift.) This is the sort of thing that would be great for a lifting class.
It took me a second to figure it out, but I think it’s awesome. Do you track sets and reps or just weight?